PROTOCOL
Of the First Zionist Congress at Basel
1st to 3rd of Elul 5657 – 29th to 31st of August 1897

WORKING PROGRAM
For
The Zionist Congress at Basel
On the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of Elul 5657 – 29th, 30th, 31st of August 1897
First Day, 1st Elul – August 29th. First Session, starting 9 am

Constitution of Congress:

1. Opening of Congress by Eldest Delegate.
2. Welcome Address by Dr T. Herzl.
3. Election of Office Bearers – chairman, head secretary, vice-chairmen and vice-secretaries (number still to be decided).

Agenda:

First Item: The General Jewish Condition – by Dr M. Nordau.
Second Item: Establishing the Zionist Program – by Dr N. Birnbaum and Dr B. Farbstein.

First Day, Second Session, starting 3 pm.
Agenda: Third Item: The Zionist Organization – by Adv. Dr Bodenheimer.
a) Centralization of the Zionist project.
b) The Jewish National Fund.
c) Campaigning.

Second Day, 2nd Elul – August 30th. Third Session, starting 9 am.
Agenda: Continued lectures and debates on Third Item.

Second Day, Fourth Session, starting 3 pm.
Agenda: Fourth Item: Settling Palestine – by Dr M.T. Schnirer.
a) Purchase of land.
b) Founding new colonies.
c) Training of settlers.
d) Cultural concerns.

Third Day, 3rd Elul – August 31st, Fifth Session, starting 9 am.
Fifth Item: Hebrew Literature – by Dr M Ehrenpreis.

Third day, Sixth Session, starting 3 pm.
Sixth Item: Determining the locations of the next Congress and of the organization’s offices.
Seventh Item: Closing of Congress and Summary of Resolutions.

First Day of Debates 1st of Elul 5657 – August 29th 1897
Morning Session
(Congress was opened with three strokes of the gavel by Dr Isidore Shalit).

Eldest Delegate, Dr Karpel Lippe (Iasi, Romania): About seventeen years ago I received a letter from a Hebrew writer by the name of Akiva Chashmal, in which he informed me that a man named Elazar Rokach, from Safed in Palestine, had come to Romania to campaign for the establishment of colonies in Palestine. Soon afterwards I was requested, in a humble room in a suburb of Iasi, to rouse interest in this project through speech and writing. Soon 27 committees had been formed in 27 Romanian towns, with a central committee in Galati that included Mr Shmuel Pineles and myself. This campaign yielded the first two Romanian colonies in Palestine: Zichron Ya’akov and Rosh Pina. When these were transferred to more capable hands our committee ceased to exist, but Mr Pineles and I continued laboring towards this cause. I attended the convention at Katowice; others who attended and are also present here today include Messrs. Yasinovsky and Moses.
That conference did lay something of a foundation for Zionist aspirations, but it represented only a negligible part of the Jewish population. This congress, however, represents all of Jewry.
What a great leap from that humble room in a Iasi suburb to this hall in Basel, what unexpected progress from Chashmal and Rokach to Herzl and Nordau!
This gathering of delegates from Jewish organizations and of other passionate Jews is the first of its kind in eighteen hundred years of this third exile. It is the manifestation of an international movement that has united Jews from all walks of life in order to realize a national ideal that throughout this long exile, the Exile of Edom, had been locked within Judaism and straining in vain to be realized. This is indeed a great and glorious day in Jewish history!
The issue to be discussed today is nothing less than the return of the Jews to the land of their fathers, the Holy Land, which our one God promised our father Abraham to grant us for his progeny.
For hundreds of years we have waited in vain for redemption from our bleak exile through heavenly miracles that are beyond nature. But now, worn with years of waiting and surrounded by enemies, we wish to try and bring on our redemption by natural means, so that we may return to our ancient homeland like our fathers in Egypt and later in Babylon. They, too, reached the homeland by means of natural historical development. After the Exodus our ancestors conquered the Land of the Fathers by the earthly means of war, under the staff of Moses, Joshua, the Judges and the Kings. The exiles of Babylon returned by virtue of diplomatic negotiations with king Koresh of Persia, and an international treaty, which is recorded word for word in our scriptures. Though the prophet Zachariah predicted supernatural redemption, comforting them with the words, “Behold, thy king [the Messiah] cometh unto thee… lowly, and riding upon an ass,” our ancestors did not wait for the fulfillment of this prophecy. They used the first opportunity to return to their land. The prophet Isaiah went as far as to give the pagan king of Persia the title of Messiah.
We, too, like our fathers 2509 years ago, are unwilling to wait any longer for the one who rides upon the ass, for the Messiah. We too wish to return to Eretz Israel on the basis of an international treaty.
Those of us who are Orthodox, and are still waiting for that king who rides upon an ass, may remain in exile and wait for his coming. However, if they allow beggars, idlers and old men to settle in the holy land while they support them with meager alms, surely we cannot be prevented from sending spirited, hard-working young people there, whose assiduous labor will turn the wilderness into an Eden. And if the lowly king does finally come, then our laborers will give him a more fitting welcome than those schnorrers.
We do not deny that our predicament is much more difficult than that of the exiles of Babylon. During their exile, Babylon and the land of Israel were both provinces of the Kingdom of Persia. Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah had only to request the Persian government to allow the Jews to move from one province to another. This task is harder for our immigrants, as foreign subjects who wish to settle in a region of Turkey. But by his renowned grace, the governing Sultan – who recognizes the loyalty of his Jewish subjects and is aware of the benefit Jews bring wherever they settle – would not prevent a significant number of such diligent, cultured bodies from settling in his domain.
As to those assimilationist Jews who refuse to join our cause, those who in their deplorable denial of their own identity forfeit the honorable title of “nation” and regard the Zionist movement as a danger to their status as citizens, and who see happiness only in assimilation into other nations – to them we address the call of the biblical Jewish officer to his soldiers on going into battle: “What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return unto his house.” A nation such as the Jewish one, in which for three thousand years there has been no-one entirely ignorant even in the absence of compulsory learning, a nation which the most infernal powers could not deprive of its national consciousness – such a nation still contains sufficient life force for independent national existence, and should not despair of itself. Our people has a prolific, influential history. The first war for freedom recorded in the chronicles of the world is the Exodus of our ancestors from Egypt. To the world’s history, the Exodus is merely the beginning. But the history of the Jews is that of the world-sweeping idea. The first legislation, the first ordering of human life, was the Jewish law. Our ancient literature, collectively called the Bible, has been translated to all civilized and semi-civilized languages, and resides in the homes of hundreds of millions of families as an uplifting household book; our psalms are recited by ministers of all religions.
The Jewish nation lacks nothing but its historical homeland in order to be complete, and it is this that we wish to discuss. The assimilationists’ fear of Jewish settlement in Palestine is puzzling to us. How will those immigrants to Palestine harm our brothers who stay behind? So far, thirty-two Jewish colonies have been established in the Holy Land, and we do not feel in the least injured. The Holy Land pavilion in the trade exhibition of Berlin, Cologne and Breslau caused no damage. Nor did the many Jews, men of action and enterprise, who have immigrated to Jerusalem and to other towns in the Holy Land.
And here is the Congress. Indeed, the Congress! This Congress is – apart from the matters it proposes to debate – a public assembly protesting eighteen hundred years of persecution, oppression and suffering, as of any other minority whose rights have been violated and curbed. When our human rights are being constrained from every direction, should we also relinquish our cry of protest, the only right that remains to us? We Jews have not despaired of humanity despite the ineffable, relentless injustice inflicted on us. We intend to appeal to Europe’s collective conscience in the hope that it has not been extinguished by anti-Semitism and by misled, distorted Christian love. We have grounds for grievance against governments, nations and ecclesiastics.
For a time we believed we would find our happiness in that Aryan culture we have come to favor so, but it betrayed us. As the prophet Jeremiah lamented, “I called for my lovers, but they deceived me.” When our fathers left Egypt, many assimilationists joined them, but they did not have courage to contend with an unpleasant fate, and on encountering the first hardship they cried, “Let us make a captain, and let us return to Egypt!” We, however, called, “Let us make a captain and let us return to Jerusalem!” We must remove ourselves from the domination of violent power and return to our ancient homeland. And if our mission among the nations is not yet fully accomplished, we shall complete what is owing to them when we are settled there. “For out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” [Warm applause].
Dr Lippe’s proposal of sending a message of greeting and loyalty to the Sultan was unanimously accepted and applauded.
Eldest Delegate: I now give the floor to Dr Theodor Herzl.

Welcome Address by Dr T. Herzl

Dr Theodor Herzl: Fellow Delegates – As one of those who called this Congress into being I have been granted the privilege of welcoming you. This I shall do briefly, for if we wish to serve the cause we should economize the valuable moments of the Congress. There is much to be accomplished within the space of three days. We want to lay the foundations of the edifice which is one day to house the Jewish people. The task is so great that we may treat of it in none but the simplest terms. So far as we can now foresee, a summary of the present status of the Jewish question will be submitted within the coming three days. The tremendous bulk of material on hand is being classified by the chairmen of our committees.
We shall hear reports of the Jewish situation in the various countries. You all know, even if only in a vague way, that with few exceptions the situation is not cheering. Were it otherwise we should probably not have convened. The unity of our destiny has suffered a long interruption, although the scattered fragments of the Jewish people have everywhere endured similar vicissitudes. It is only in our days that the marvels of communication have brought about mutual understanding and union between isolated groups. And in these times, so progressive in most respects, we know ourselves to be surrounded by the old, old hatred. Anti-Semitism – you know it, alas, too well! – is the up-to-date designation of the movement. The first impression which it made upon the Jews of today was one of astonishment, which gave way to pain and resentment. Perhaps our enemies are quite unaware bow deeply they wounded the sensibilities of just those of us who were possibly not the primary objects of their attack. That very part of Jewry which is modern and cultured, which has outgrown the ghetto and lost the habit of petty trading, was pierced to the heart. We can assert it calmly, without laying ourselves open to the suspicion of wanting to appeal to the sentimental pity of our opponents. We have faced the situation squarely.
Since time immemorial the world has been misinformed about us. The sentiment of solidarity with which we have been reproached so frequently and so acrimoniously was in process of disintegration at the very time we were being attacked by anti-Semitism. And anti-Semitism served to strengthen it anew. We returned home, as it were. For Zionism is a return to the Jewish fold even before it becomes a return to the Jewish land. We, the children who have returned, find much to redress under the ancestral roof, for some of our brothers have sunk deep into misery. We are made welcome in the ancient house, for it is universally known that we are not actuated by an arrogant desire to undermine that which should be revered. This will be clearly demonstrated by the Zionist platform.
Zionism has already brought about something remarkable, heretofore regarded as impossible: a close union between the ultramodern and the ultraconservative elements of Jewry. The fact that this has come to pass without undignified concessions on the part of either side, without intellectual sacrifices, is further proof, if such proof is necessary, of the national entity of the Jews. A union of this kind is possible only on a national basis.
Doubtless there will be discussions on the subject of an organization the need for which is recognized by all. Organization is an evidence of the reasonableness of a movement. But there is one point which should be clearly and energetically emphasized in order to advance the solution of the Jewish question. We Zionists desire not an international league but international discussion. Needless to say this distinction is of the first importance in our eyes. It is this distinction which justifies the convening of our Congress. There will be no question of intrigues, secret interventions, and devious methods in our ranks, but only of unhampered utterances under the constant and complete check of public opinion. One of the first results of our movement, even now to be perceived in its larger outlines, will be the transformation of the Jewish question into a question of Zion.
A popular movement of such vast dimension will necessarily be attacked from many sides. Therefore the Congress will concern itself with the spiritual means to be employed for reviving and fostering the national consciousness of the Jews. Here, too, we must struggle against misconceptions. We have not the least intention of yielding a jot of the culture we have acquired. On the contrary, we are aiming toward a broader culture, such as an increase of knowledge brings with it. As a matter of fact, the Jews have always been more active mentally than physically.
It was because the practical forerunners of Zionism realized this that they inaugurated agricultural work for the Jews. We shall never be able, nor shall we desire, to speak of these attempts at colonization in Palestine and in Argentina otherwise than with genuine gratitude. But they spoke the first, not the last word of the Zionist movement. For the Zionist movement must be greater in scope if it is to be at all. A people can be helped only by its own efforts, and if it cannot help itself it is beyond succor. But we Zionists want to rouse the people to self-help. No premature, unwholesome hopes should be awakened in this direction. This is another reason why public procedure, as it is planned by our Congress, is so essential.
Those who give the matter careful consideration must surely admit that Zionism cannot gain its ends otherwise than through an unequivocal understanding with the political units involved. It is generally known that the difficulties of obtaining colonization rights were not created by Zionism in its present form. One wonders what motives actuate the narrators of these fables. The confidence of the government with which we want to negotiate regarding the settlement of Jewish masses on a large scale can be gained by plain language and upright dealing. The advantages which an entire people is able to offer in return for benefits received are so considerable that the negotiations are vested with sufficient importance a priori. It would be an idle beginning to engage in lengthy discussions today regarding the legal form which the agreement will finally assume. But one thing is to be adhered to inviolably: The agreement must be based on rights, and not on toleration. Indeed we have had enough experience of toleration and of "protection" which could be withdrawn at any time.
Consequently the only reasonable course of action which our movement can pursue is to work for publicly legalized guarantees. The results of colonization as it has been carried on hitherto were quite satisfactory within its limitations. It confirmed the much disputed fitness of the Jews for agricultural work. It established this proof for all time, as the legal phrase has it. But colonization in its present form is not, and cannot be, the solution of the Jewish question. And we must admit unreservedly that it has failed to evoke much sympathy. Why? Because the Jews know how to calculate; in fact, it has been asserted that they calculate too well. Thus, if we assume that there are nine million Jews in the world, and that it would be possible to colonize ten thousand Jews in Palestine every year, the Jewish question would require nine hundred years for its solution. This would seem impracticable.
On the other hand, you know that to count on ten thousand settlers a year under existing circumstances is nothing short of fantastic. The Turkish government would doubtless unearth the old immigration restrictions immediately, and to that we would have little objection. For if anyone thinks that the Jews can steal into the land of their fathers, he is deceiving either himself or others. Nowhere is the coming of Jews so promptly noted as in the historic home of the race, for the very reason that it is the historic home. And it would by no means be in our interest to go there prematurely. The immigration of Jews signifies an unhoped-for accession of strength for the land which is now so poor; in fact, for the whole Ottoman Empire. Besides, His Majesty the Sultan has had excellent experiences with his Jewish subjects, and he has been an indulgent monarch to them in turn. Thus, existing conditions point to a successful outcome, provided the whole matter is intelligently and felicitously treated. The financial help which the Jews can give to Turkey is by no means inconsiderable and would serve to obviate many an internal ill from which the country is now suffering. If the Near East question is partially solved together with the Jewish question, it will surely be of advantage to all civilized peoples. The advent of Jews would bring about an improvement in the situation of the Christians in the Orient.
But it is not solely from this aspect that Zionism may count upon the sympathy of the nations. You know that in some lands the Jewish problem has come to mean calamity for the government. If it sides with the Jews, it is confronted by the ire of the masses; if it sides against the Jews, it may call considerable economic consequences down upon its head because of the peculiar influence of the Jews upon the business affairs of the world. Examples of the latter may be found in Russia. But if the government maintains a neutral attitude, the Jews find themselves unprotected by the established regime and rush into the arms of the revolutionaries. Zionism, or self-help for the Jews, points to a way out of these numerous and extraordinary difficulties. Zionism is simply a peacemaker. And it suffers the usual fate of peacemakers, in being forced to fight more than anyone else. But should the accusation that we are not patriotic figure among the more or less sincere arguments directed against our movement, this equivocal objection carries its own refutation with it. Nowhere can there be a question of an exodus of all the Jews. Those who are able or who wish to be assimilated will remain behind and be absorbed. When once a satisfactory agreement is concluded with the various political units involved and a systematic Jewish migration begins, it will last only so long in each country as that country desires to be rid of its Jews. How will the current be stopped? Simply by the gradual decrease and the final cessation of anti-Semitism. Thus it is that we understand and anticipate the solution of the Jewish problem.
All this has been said time and again by my friends and by myself. We shall spare no pains to repeat it again and again until we are understood. On this solemn occasion, when Jews have come together from so many lands at the age-old summons of nationality, let our profession of faith be solemnly repeated. Should we not be stirred by a premonition of great events when we remember that at this moment the hopes of thousands upon thousands of our people depend upon our assemblage? In the coming hour the news of our deliberations and decisions will fly to distant lands, over the seven seas. Therefore enlightenment and comfort should go forth from this congress. Let everyone find out what Zionism really is, Zionism, which was rumored to be a sort of millennial marvel – that it is a moral, lawful, humanitarian movement, directed toward the long-yearned-for goal of our people. It was possible and permissible to ignore the spoken or written utterances of individuals within our ranks. Not so much with the actions of the Congress. Thus the Congress, which is henceforth to be ruler of its discussions, must govern as a wise ruler.
Finally, the Congress will provide for its own continuance, so that we do not disperse once more ineffectual and ephemeral. Through this Congress we are creating an agency for the Jewish people such as it has not possessed heretofore, an agency of which it has stood in urgent need. Our cause is too great to be left to the ambition or the whim of individuals. It must be elevated to the realm of the impersonal if it is to succeed. And our Congress shall live forever, not only until the redemption from age-long suffering is effected, but afterward as well. Today we are here in the hospitable limits of this free city – where shall we be next year?
But wherever we shall be, and however distant the accomplishment of our task, let our Congress be earnest and high-minded, a source of welfare to the unhappy, of defiance to none, of honor to all Jewry. Let it be worthy of our past, the renown of which, though remote, is eternal!

Sources:
Excerpt taken from Hebrew edition of: The Protocols of The First Zionist Congress, edited by Haim Orlen, Rubin Mass ltd. Publications. Excerpt translated by Shlomit Cnaan.
The Zionist Idea – A Historical Analysis and Reader, edited by Arthur Hertzberg, Meridian Books Inc. and The Jewish Publication Society of America